This is interesting its a car that can be driven by thinking. It requires the driver to wear a headset which is linked to the car’s electronics via wireless technology. All the driver has to do is think that they want to go left or right and the car will respond. It has been developed by a team of German scientists who are currently testing a prototype to see if it could be used for everyday driving. The technology called BrainDriver uses video cameras, radars and laser sensors to build up a 3D picture of its surroundings. The driver wears a cap with 16 sensors which pick up the brain’s electromagnetic signals. These signals are then interpreted by a computer which can understand what the specific patterns mean.

I was alerted to this scam when my mother received a phone call. The call was from what sounded like an Indian call centre and was someone claiming they worked for Microsoft. They told my mother that they were calling because they were aware she was having problems with her computer and that she had downloaded some malicious software. They wanted her to start up her computer so that they could look at it remotely. Luckily my mother was suspicious and told the caller she didn’t have time to deal with it. She then called me and to find out if it was genuine. Naturally my first point of call was to ask the mighty Google whether it was known scam and I quickly came across several articles relating to it including this one.

It seems the scam is to take control of a persons machine and install various software under the guise of removing some malicious software from the computer. They then take your credit card details and charge you for the remote support. I was surprised that this was the first time I have come across scam particularly as it appears to have targeted so many people. It seems many people are fooled by it because the caller often has details such as their address and sometimes even their account number from their broadband provider. There are also suspicions that this information is often being passed on from employees of some of these organisations. Its a scam that I don’t think would fool those such as myself that are fairly well informed but I would imagine people who don’t work in the IT industry could easily be caught out.

The Cornish pasty has recently been granted protected status from the European commission meaning that only pasties made in Cornwall can be labelled as Cornish pasties. Under the ruling only pasties prepared in Cornwall following the traditional recipe can be described as Cornish although they can still be made in Cornwall and baked elsewhere. Other producers will still be able to make and sell pasties but will no longer be able to sell them as Cornish pasties. The move has been hailed as good news for the Cornish economy due to the jobs it will safeguard in the local area. If you are interested a typical Cornish pasty should have a distinctive D shape with a chunky filling made up of not less than 12.5% of uncooked mince of chunks of beef with swede, potato and onion and seasoning.

According to this article Smokey the cat (pictured) has a purr so loud that it has been measured at 92 decibels. That’s about four times louder than the average cat and is loud enough to drown out the sound of the TV or a conversation. She is quite cute but I can see how it might start to become a little bit annoying. Our cats do purr quite loudly but we do also have a problem with one of them making a constant howling noise when she is ignored. The only solution is to put her on your lap and she is immediately silent.

If this article is to be believed it seems breeding programmes to reintroduce red kites to parts of the UK have met with some success. There are now though to be around 1,800 pairs of red kites in the UK which is encouraging news, particularly as they were almost hunted to extinction in Victorian times. There was thought to be just a handful of breeding pairs remaining by the 1960s, however, a programme to reintroduce the birds was started 20 years ago. This along with the fact that there is more food for the birds due to many local councils collecting rubbish less often appears to have helped their numbers. The birds are mainly scavengers, eating small animals and discarded food so are greatly helped by areas with overflowing wheelie bins and black bin sacks which are easy for them to break into.

According to this article the world’s hottest chilli has been grown in Grantham in Lincolnshire. The chilli measures 1.17 million on the Scoville Scale, the official measure of spicy heat beating the previous winner the Bhut Jolokia from India. The new variety of chilli was grown by accident and is the result of an accidental crossbreed from other varieties in the greenhouse. It is so hot that it comes with a health warning.

I am spending a bit more time baking recently in the interests of using what I have at home rather than spending money on buying snacks. So when I felt like something sweet I decided to make a batch of shortbread biscuits. They were just what I needed to satisfy my sweet tooth and the recipe which came from my Delia book is quite straight forward. The biscuits are great straight from the oven and they never seem to last very long, these were all eaten by the end of the day.

The basic recipe uses 110g butter, 50g caster sugar, 175g of plain flour. All you need to do is cream the butter, add the sugar and sifted flour and mix until it forms a paste. Then roll it out onto a sugared board and cut into the desired shape. Bake on a baking for 30 minutes on 150C/300F and leave to cool on tray. I dust mine with a little caster sugar before eating.

There seems to have been a lot in the news over the last week about the dangers of eating too much red meat. Once again it seems experts have decided it is bad for us and have found it necessary to draw up new guidelines on how much we should be eating. If we believe the latest research too much red meat is likely to cause amongst other things an increased risk of cancer. Under the latest guidelines issued by the Department of Health we are now advised to eat no more than 500g a week or 70g a day. That’s about the equivalent of three rashers of bacon a day or three sausages, one small steak, one quarter pounder and three slices of lamb in a week. I do wonder, however, how much red meat most people do eat. Personally although we do like to eat it, the prices of red meat are now so expensive we are lucky if we buy it once a fortnight. The rest of the time we live on chicken or fish. When I work out how much red meat we would eat in any given meal, I find that having cut portion sizes, once again due to cost concerns, we are well within the recommended limits. Perhaps we are unusual in our eating habits but I would be interested to find out how often the average person actually consumes red meat, maybe it’s not as often as the experts believe.

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